Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - With a couple of school districts contemplating teacher layoffs, there are concerns over putting together budgets that will avoid that. State lawmakers hope rule changes proposed for next year will help avert layoffs.
Assemblymember Patrick Burke's district includes West Seneca, which is looking at layoffs, and he says he has heard from some concerned parties.
"I've certainly heard from leadership in the local teachers unions. I've heard from some of the leaders, the the leadership from the schools and Orchard Park as well, where I represent, there certainly concerns each district is different in how they manage their budgets, how much they keep for a fund balance," said Burke in an interview with WBEN.
He adds a pretty significant high amount in fund balance that they could certainly use.
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Burke says he's fighting for a budget that holds districts harmless, meaning they will get at least as much funding this year than last year.
"I think those negotiations as far as school funding, are, I think they're going to be satisfactory, now, what each school district does, with their own budgets and how they management's manage that, in the end that's on them for providing the resources that that are promised," Burke said.
Burke adds he's deeply concerned if lawmakers are doing the work and will be going to provide the resources to avoid layoffs and budget crunches.
"I want to make sure it's clear from school leadership, if we're providing the necessary resources to meet Foundation, a requirement that you're not issuing layoffs," Burke said.
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Assemblymember Monica Wallace says she would want to be part of the conversation to see what the proposed changes to the foundation are.
"I don't think it's something that should be rushed, I don't think we have to have if we're going to be changing the way we allocate money to the school districts, we should be making a thoughtful approach," said Wallace with WBEN on Wednesday.
Wallace says the hold harmless provision is to make sure the school districts don't receive less than they receive the year before.
"Because even though they might have less students in a particular year, the number of students are sort of spread out. So they might have three less students in sixth grade and five less students in eighth grade, and so they can't really cut a teacher in that situation, because it would just be spread throughout the whole district. So the idea is to kind of give them a little bit more time and breathing room to plan accordingly," she explained.
Wallace says with the exception of Depew, the school districts in her district will do well under this year's formula.